Winding machine



Dec. 8, 1942. F. E. WIRTZ ETTAL WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27. 1,940

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WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 l8 Sheets-Sheet 5 3381'?! ATTORNEYS Dec. 8, 1942. F. E. WIRTZ ETAL 2,304,520

I WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 l8 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTORS FRANK awm-rz JOSEPH r1. RODGERE iZez'r ATTORN EYs Dec. 8, 1942 F. 5. WIRTZ ETAL WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 18 Sheets-Sheet 7 Dec. 8, 1942-. F. E. V\YIIRTZ E'TAL WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27 1940 1a Sheets-Sheet a E km Nmm

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Filed Sept. 27, 1940' 18 Sheets-Sheet l1 s- Z k. Q b m a Rww +Y mLn E NEW m x m n F. E. WIRTZ ETAL WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 Dec. 8, 1942.

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nz'rz JOSEPH (110062-25 22m ATTORNEYS Dec. 8, 1942. F. E. WIRTZ EI'AL 2,304;-52 0 WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 l8 Sheets-Sheet 14 440 V 7 l I l I l rwa SPEED BRA/r5 'wvrfioum sols/mm CONTROL LEI? Jose? ROUGE-R5 I IN mm. 7 25 mxz' aizu Dec. 8, 1942. F. 5. WIRTZ ETAL "WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 18 Sheats-Sheet 15 TWO SPEED BOA/7PM SOLE/VOID BER/(E Bil/Ense- CONTROLLER s 4 ZR a 5mm 5 Riv own M T N N R EK 0 vN fl NAP T m u 1 J. M VI J BM M.

Dec. s, 1942' F. E. wmz 5. M 2,304,520

WINDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 27, 1940 18 Sheet-Sheet 17 440 w I 7 H I m TWO SPEED BRAKE CONMM-LER SGLEq/O/D I 1 L l I b i Q Q "INN I 3 f E I E I F E @504 r oRwARb r 450 FGRWARO AND REVERSE r COW/FULLER "0%, AAA/v 5 llll- 'YY'VVY' INVE TORS 7 FRAN ewna-rz Jose PH r1. RODGERS 26 v M, an

finrATToRNEYs cams.

Patented Dec. 8, 1942 wmmnc momma Frank E. Wirtz and Joseph M. Rodgers Dayton, Ohio, assignors to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application September 27, 1940, Serial No. 358,721

41 Claims.

of'the stator being wound by the machine from a continuous length of wire or wires.

For carrying out the above mentioned object, the machine is provided with a rotatable stator supporting cage and a reciprocatable wire guiding and laying needle and means for oscillating the ,said cage in one direction or the other at a time when the mechanism adapted to reciprocate the needle is inactive. The means for oscillating the stator carrying cage in one direction or the other comprises cam follower arms which are oscillated clockwise and counterclockwise by operatively engaging the working surfaces of the groups of cams, each group comprising aplurality of predeterminately arranged cams in juxtaposition. A cam follower arm, operatively 'engaging the cams of one group in proper succession' .will oscillate the stator. carrying cage through successively longer arcs of movement for the purpose of bringing the more widely separated slots of the successively wound concentric coilssofone stator pole in proper operating alignment with the reciprocating wire laying needle.

' Reversal of the winding direction of the machine for. the set of concentric coils at the next succeeding pole position of the stator is obtained by the shifting of the previously acting cam follower arm out of operating: alignment with the one group of cams and'the subsequent alignment of the second cam follower arm, with the second group of cams with which said second arm cooperates to wind the second set of pole coils in a manner similar to that just described in connection with the first follower and first group of The means for reciprocating the wire guiding and laying needle comprises a cam so designed that it will maintain the needle at each end of its reciprocative movement for a period of time suflicient to permit oscillation of the stator carrying cage for the purpose of bringing the other slot of the respective stator coil into proper operating alignment with the needle and incidentally forcing the one end loop or crossover of the respective coil. The two groups of means that operates other parts of the machine. This power means is preferably an electric motor 7 and may be referred to hereinafter as the "primary power means. Due to friction and inertia, the cam follower arms can only be actuated counterclockwise by the cams, for in this direction the cam follower arms are moving "uphill" from a lower dwell of the cam to a higher one. Friction and inertia of the machine, however, will prevent the follower arm from'riding "down-hill on the cam, that is, from the higher to the lower dwell, thus necessitating the application of a separate power means directly to the cam follower arm and in a clockwise direction,

In order to obtain smooth operation of the machine and to avoid the simultaneous application of opposing driving forces to the cam follower arms, it is another object of the present invention to provide the machine with two separate and distinct power means one of which, although constantly available, is capable of rotating the oscillatable cam follower arms in one direction only, the other power means being applied to rotate said arms in the other direction and being active only during the period in which the first power means is incapable of oscillating the arms. In this connection, it is a further object of the present= invention to provide the machine with controlling means adapted to.render the second power means sequentially active and inactive at proper stages in the winding of each convolution of a stator coil. This object is attained by providing a control device which is actuated by the reciprocating needle mechanism adjacent its one end of travel, to render said second power means active for oscillating the stator carrying cage in one direction and adjacent its opposite end of travel is adapted to render the said second power means inactive, thereby effecting oscillation of the stator carrying cage in the opposite direction succeeding set of pole coils are wound in a dicams just described are driven by the same power rection reversed by the set of coilsat the preceding pole position of the stator. It has also been stated that the control ,device which effect osciliation of the stator carrying cage in opposite directions sequentially, renders the second power means active and inactive for each convolution of saidset of coils. Therefore it is a still further object of the present invention to provide the winding machine with a timed control mechanism which will change the sequence of operation of the control device for the second power means at the proper instant between the completion of one set of coils at onepole position of the stator and the beginning of the set of coils at the next adjacent pole position of the stator.

Thus, in a machine as shown which is adapted to wind a stator of four poles, the machine timed control mechanism will be effective in the first half of a complete cycle of the machine, first to change the sequence of operation of the second power means control device so that said second power means will be active to oscillate the cage at both the back and front positions of the needle mechanism when completing the last end-loop of the first set of coils and the first end-loop of the second following set of coils, reversely wound to the first set. The machine timed control mechanism will next be effective to actuate the control device of the second power means so that said power means will be inactive ing 01 a stator. This object is attained by providing means actuated by the machine when a stator is completely wound, not only open the circuit to the electric motor which drives the machine, but also simultaneously close a reverse circuit through said motor which energizes the motor to effect its reverse operation. This energy in reverse, opposes the normal forward coasting tendency, quickly'bringing the motor and its connected machine to a full stop. The electric motor has a switch closing the main circuit through the motor only as long as the motor rotates in the normal forward direction.

while the cams, driven by the first power means,

successively oscillate the cage to form the last end-loop of the second set of coils and the first end-loop of the third set of coils. The operation will be repeated for the second half of the machine cycle of operation during which time sets of coils for pole positions three and four are wound.

In the present machine the second powermeans comprises an air pressure cylinder, the piston of which is actuated by air pressure to rotate the cam follower arms clockwise. Uncontrolled I movement of the cam follower arm under the influence of the air cylinder causes clashing engagement of said follower arms with the respective cams. Consequently it is a further object of the present invention to provide a controlling means adapted to prevent excessively fast rotation of thecam follower arms toward their respective cams under the influence of the air cylinder. This control is of a dual character, the first comprising means for reducing the speed of the primary power means at the time a cam follower arm is to be shifted, the second com-' prising a one-way, speed limiting clutch operatively connected between one member driven by the primary power means and another member driven by the mechanism for rotating the cam follower arms. This clutch is so constructed and arranged that the cam followers may be rotated by the air cylinder no faster than the predeter mined speed of rotation of that part of the clutch connected to the primary power means. In fact. while the machine is at rest, said clutch actually prevents movement of the cam follower arms by the air cylinder even after said air.cylinder has been activated by the manual resetting of certain parts of the machine preliminary to its winding cycle. Starting of the machine by the primary power means permits the air cylinder to become active and move the follower arm in accordance with the speed of machine operation.

When the complete stator has been wound, the

. machine will automatically stop due to the breaka minimum time after its completion of the wind- 7 actuated brake which is applied to the motor as long as the circuit thereto is broken.

A still further object is to provide power means for resetting or returning the cam followers to initial position, said power means becoming operative in response to rotating the cam followers so that they will clear the cam.

Since the air cylinder which efiects rotation of the cam followers in one direction is inactive at the end of the winding cycle and must be active at the instant of the start of the next winding cycle, the present machine includes means for establishing a change in the sequential operation of the control for the air cylinder while the machine is at rest. It is an object of the invention to effect this change in sequential operation concurrently with the resetting function.

Another object of the invention is to render the machine incapable of being started until the resetting operation has been fully completed. In carrying out this object the shaft carrying the cam follower arms is adapted to actuate a switch to close one gap in the circuit of the primary power means only when said shaft has been moved to restore the cam follower arms to their reset positions preliminary to the starting of another winding cycle. Other gaps in the circuit of the primary power means such as relay switches .and the like are energized to complete and maintain the entire power circuit in response to the momentary closing of the main starting button switch by the operator.

A further object is to provide for the facile adaptation of the machine to wind stators differing with respect to total number of turns per pole and also differing with respect to the number ofturns in each pole winding. This object is accomplished by providing for quickly changing the gearing between the main drive and the timer disc shaft, and for adjusting the lugs on the timer disc or for quickly substituting one timer disc for another.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figs. 1 to 22, inclusive, all illustrate the mechanical construction of the machine and may be detailedly described as follows:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the machine which in the present instance is adapted to Wind four separate stators simultaneously.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the machine taken in the direction of the arrow 2 in Fig. 1. 

